Designing in the open: How GitLab redefined the way users navigate

分会场： 体验设计/产品创新/运营驱动

分享时间： 2017年11月9日 - 12日

案例来源 :

案例讲师

Sarrah Vesselov

GitLab
UX Lead

Sarrah Vesselov is a UX Designer based in Tampa, FL. She is currently the UX Lead for GitLab, leading her team in setting the overall direction of UX from both a design and application experience perspective. Sarrah has over 10 years of web design and development experience and is the Director for Women Who Code Tampa and Chapter Leader for Girl Develop It Tampa, organizations dedicated to advancing women in technology. She holds a B.F.A in Computer Animation and an M.B.A in Marketing.

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所在软件研发中心介绍

GitLab Inc. is a company based on the GitLab open-source project. GitLab is an integrated product that unifies issues, code review, CI and CD into a single UI.

为什么这个案例值得分享？

案例简述

Maintaining simple and intuitive navigation for products as they scale is a constant challenge. As features are added and the product becomes more complex, ensuring easy access to these features also increases in complexity. How do you show users what they need to see when they need to see it? How do you give access to 'x' number of features without overwhelming the user? Even more challenging, how do you make changes to an existing product without alienating your user base?
This case study looks at how GitLab's navigation needs to evolve to keep pace, while implementing features to support "idea to production" and broaden its user base. We will cover the trials, tribulations, and pitfalls of completely redesigning a product's navigation in an open source environment. We'll examine how, through the creation of personas, prototypes, and rounds of user testing, we were able to redesign and reintroduce an entirely new way to navigate Gitlab.

案例目标

We work iteratively and out in the open at Gitlab with a release going out every month. In our 9.0 release we took a risk and tried to fix perceived problems in our navigation without thoroughly testing the solution with our users. As an open source project for a software development tool with a diverse user base, the feedback we receive is: big, diverse, and direct. The impact of this change was heard and felt immediately. Rather than respond reactively, we took a step back to formulate a UX research process that would allow us to gain deeper insight and understanding before making further changes.

This case would be of interest to anyone working in an open source environment, those interested in the challenges posed when designing a navigation for software development tools, and those just putting together their own UX research process.

成功（或教训）要点

Key to success:
The experience of introducing GitLab’s new navigation led to several key learning points:
1.Learn what your users are doing, not what they say they are doing. Having User Research to back up design decisions will keep you from second guessing yourself when you receive feedback.
2.Progressive disclosure (internal > behind a feature flag > default) — this allowed us to iterate and fix things quickly using feedback from people that use the tool daily.
3.Use the right tool for the job — for research we used InVision, then Framer, and then real code; each tool was used only when it was needed

案例ROI分析

While the ROI in this case cannot be stated in quantitative terms, there was visible ROI qualitatively. The change in the feedback and interaction with our user base was measurable. Users that were once frustrated by their experience navigating GitLab became vocal supporters and contributors to the effort.

案例启示

We believe strongly in iteration at Gitlab, it is one of our core values. Releasing every month can create pressure for the UX team to solve problems quickly and with little time to conduct user research. Establishing a solid design process which embraces our open source culture and allows small iterative changes to be implemented has proved challenging yet rewarding.